Bottles
by El loopy
Summary: "Your courage bottle is always full. You are the most courage-filled person I know...may I take a little?" Slight AU. Oneshot. Hatter x Alice.


**A/N ****Slightly AU, set between the Hatter being rescued and the fight with the Jabberwocky.****  
This is the second one that's been sat around for a while. ****I've tried to keep it Wonderland-esk, which is why the subject of the conversation is what it is, and also the reason for the sparkles and fireworks later. They are supposed to be almost-not-quite literal. Enjoy.  


* * *

**Bottles

"Your bottle is filling up nicely," the Hatter pointed out helpfully.

Alice turned to look at him from where she was digging through her wardrobe, shoving clothes left and right, looking for an appropriate outfit to wear to dinner. The Queen had been very kind to lend her some clean clothes but the fashions of Underland were very strange. She couldn't tell what was up or down, or what went where, which was why the Hatter stood at her elbow pointing out how she would put on such an outfit or whether it would look good. He was very used to picking out how a hat would suit and it wasn't so far a jump to clothes. It was unfortunate that most of the Queen's clothes were covered in little white hearts. They did not really look right on Alice, he thought. She had one big heart not many small ones.

"What bottle?" Alice responded, looking at him over her shoulder with a puzzled smile.

"Your courage bottle," came the immediate answer, as though it were obvious. "It sits right next to the muchness bottle."

Alice took her hands off the clothes and turned to face him properly. "Courage bottle?" she repeated, tilting her head with some bewilderment.

"The muchness bottle is full," he added with a nod. He indicated with his hand up to her shoulder height how full that meant. "The courage one goes up and down." He wavered the hand between her waist and chest. "When it gets to here," he stopped at her neck, "then you will be ready to fight."

Alice felt a small sinking feeling in her gut but pushed it away. The Hatter smiled in delight. "It just went up an inch."

Alice laughed lightly. "You say the most strange things Hatter. Why does the level not go up to here?" she pointed at her head.

Tarrant's face creased in confusion. "It is you who says strange things Alice. If it went up to there every time you spoke you would lose a little – out it would come spilling. You would never be full."

"I could just not speak," she smiled.

"Then who would I talk to?"

Orange eyes clashed earnestly with blue and a silence fell as they stared, an almost-not-quite-awkward silence, of revelations with no words.

"I lose a little courage sometimes, going to these dinners," Alice admitted quietly, her eyes not leaving those of the Hatter's. The press of clothes against her back brought home how close they stood as the wardrobe doors framed her on both sides and Tarrant stood in front.

"You replenish it quickly," uttered the faith-filled response. His eyes, which she had seen wild with madness, were totally calm and focused – focused completely on her – and soft. Very soft. He made her courage rise. "The bottle is almost full," he whispered and pressed his fingers lightly to her arm. "Just here."

Alice laid her hand over his before he could move it away. The Hatter looked at it in…bewilderment. It was…nice, good, _right_. It made those odd feelings flare.

"Your courage bottle is always full. You are the most courage-filled person I know," Alice said. She stepped towards him and he watched entranced as she brushed her free hand over his cheek. "May I take a little?"

Tarrant gave her a slow nod, not quite sure what she meant, but he would give her courage if she asked. Very, very slowly Alice placed her hand on her cheek and gently tilted his face to her own. Then slowly, shyly, drew herself closer. The Hatter didn't know how she would borrow his courage but this set the strange warm feelings bouncing madly like the March Hare and ricocheting off each other inside him. Something new was rising like molten gold and he didn't know whether to fight or surrender. When the madness came it bubbled up like black tar and he knew he should fight…but this was different. This was good and light. This would make things clearer.

Alice hesitated mere centimetres from him, her eyes searching his puzzled face, her courage floundering as doubts crept in. Thinking maybe this was a silly idea after all and would ruin everything she dropped her eyes and began to withdraw, only to find that she was being clasped quite possessively to a waist-coat clad chest.

Her eyes lifted back to his, "Hatter?" The previous expression of bewilderment melted away from Tarrant's face as he gazed down on her, becoming a look that had such depth and feeling she felt her insides lurch in response. "Hatter," she whispered again and relaxed in his arms as he pressed his lips to hers.

The gold flowed over and out of Tarrant, flooding into Alice so she sparkled. Tiny fireworks went off in the light, fizzing and bursting in small sparks of colour. The bottles of courage streamed and bubbled over as the Hatter poured into her without losing any of his own.

The kiss came to a natural end and Alice dropped her head to his shoulder, hiding her face as she recovered. Her blood was still singing as the golden light trailed through it, leaving the odd fizz in its wake.

"Meybe you wanna be borrowing some courage before your fight," came the rough brogue in her ear, "or any time between, I would be happy to assist ye."

Alice smiled into his jacket and burrowed her face in further. "Maybe I will," she whispered and lifted her head to meet his brilliant orange eyes. "Sounds like a mad, crazy, wonderful idea to me."

"All the best people are mad," he murmured.

"Well," she smiled, "you'd have to be half mad to love a madman.


End file.
